So much football! This weekend, two screens might not be enough

Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it’s easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn’t regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU’D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT’S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We’re now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson’s Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough.

We’re struggling to recall 36 hours of football with such breadth and depth. Let’s start with the most important: the final day of the National League South, where as many as six teams can still win the title. Six! Elsewhere, Celtic should and Bayern Munich could become champions of their designated land. There are two cracking teatime FA Cup semi-finals: Crystal Palace v Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City. There are also two Women’s Big Cup semi-finals in which the English teams are probably doomed but you never know: Chelsea v Barcelona (first leg: 1-4) and Lyon v Arsenal (first leg: 2-1). Chelsea Men are one of five European hopefuls in action in the Premier League, where Ipswich are likely to be relegated. It’s the penultimate weekend in the Football League, the ailing Serie A leaders Inter face in-form Roma and, last but not least, there’s a Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Phew.

Yes, yes, we saved the best for last. At Anfield on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur will assume the position for a Liverpool title celebration that is both richly deserved – they’ll win the league with four games remaining if they avoid defeat – and long overdue. Liverpool’s astonishing performance in 2019-20, when at one point they had 79 points from 27 games, merited a month of open-top bus tours. The pandemic meant they had to celebrate alone. “We are aware that the last time this club won the league was during the Covid time,” said Arne Slot, who will become the first manager since Antonio Conte in 2017 to win the Premier League in his first season. “We know there’s still a job to do. It’s a nice game to look forward to but also a responsibility we have for Sunday.”

Assuming all goes to plan at Anfield (lads, it’s …), Liverpool fans will get to celebrate two titles under two brilliant and very different managers. Having only recently discovered the concept of empathy and wishing others well, Football Daily hopes Liverpool have lined up the departed linchpins of 2019-20 to be at Anfield on Sunday: Jürgen Klopp, Pep Lijnders, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, the throw-in coach and, for the encore, Divock Origi. Sod it, get the squad players too. But maybe not Neco Williams, given he’ll be at Wembley playing in Sunday’s FA Cup semi. Those games kick off simultaneously, so you’ll need two devices if you want to talk the talk at the watercooler on Monday morning. They also overlap with Lyon v Arsenal in Women’s Big Cup, Leicester v Manchester City in the WSL and – fair enough, we’re reaching a bit here – O’Higgins v Deportes Iquique in Chile’s Primera División. Even so, look at this weekend fixture list. The Ten-Eyed Man would struggle to keep up. Nurse, the screens!

It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn’t continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It’s surreal here” – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side’s second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily’s 18th … minus the goal, of course.

Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women are taking part in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that’s the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?” – Derek McGee.

Following the preview of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final (yesterday’s Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better” – Chris Carter (and no others).

Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday’s Football Daily). According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it” – Mike Wilner.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Derek McGee, who wins our last copy of The Scouting Game, by Chris Robinson and courtesy of Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookshop here. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

Bologna are fast becoming Football Daily’s Italian team. They wear a range of exceptionally smart kits, are owned by a Canadian dairy magnate and have a manager called Vincenzo Italiano, whose players slap his bald head in celebration after a big win. And they don’t come much bigger than Thursday’s Coppa Italia success; a 2-1 home win over Empoli that sealed a 5-1 aggregate semi-final victory, and the team’s first trip to the final since 1974. “It was an objective, a dream of this city and the club. We achieved something wonderful,” cheered Italiano, who developed a knack for Cup runs in his previous job at Fiorentina. Their opponents at the Stadio Olimpico will be Milan, who haven’t won the Coppa since – checks notes – 2003?! “It’s a one-off match and anything can happen,” the Bologna manager added, but his side could be seen as favourites, sitting fourth in Serie A, nine points above Milan in ninth. Italiano is likely to sign a contract extension in the summer, while predecessor Thiago Motta has been sacked by Juventus, and was last seen on a shortlist to replace Ange Postecoglou at Spurs. Life comes at you fast in football management.

Eni Aluko has denied she “attacked” Ian Wright with her comments over his involvement as a pundit in women’s football.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted he’s still not 100% but is delighted to be back after returning to work post-pneumonia. “I was very thankful that the doctor here, Paul Catterson, acted quickly because, without that quick intervention then, possibly, it could have been a different outcome,” he said.

Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the referee for Saturday’s Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, was brought to tears on Friday by a critical video published by Madrid’s in-house TV channel (RMTV). The video shows what RMTV says is a series of errors made by De Burgos throughout his career. “When a child arrives at school and his mates tell him that his father is a thief, it makes you sick,” said De Burgos before threatening strike action. “We are not going to continue to allow what is happening,”

Media industry veteran Football Daily David Kogan has been selected as the government’s preferred chief suit of football’s new independent regulator.

Interim Southampton manager Simon Rusk is not fixated on crawling beyond Derby’s record-low points tally of 11. Nope. “I’m not going to obsess about it … I don’t think that’s useful and it’s actually negative energy,” he soothed while realigning Aaron Ramsdale’s chakras. “I can understand – my head’s not in the sand around it.”

Bayern Munich can seal their 34th Bundesliga title if they beat Mainz at the weekend but Vincent Kompany is not dreaming of being drenched by buckets of beer just yet. “All those scenarios are not yet in my head. I only prepare for the Mainz game,” he cooed, as Harry Kane signed for a couple of crates of Paulaner behind him. “Only the game is important, those 90 minutes.”

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is perhaps not as excited about Crystal Palace’s semi-final with Aston Villa as he should be. “It’s just a semi-final,” he soothed. “I don’t care if we played at Selhurst Park or Villa Park, we would try to win. The approach is no different. It’s a game. I don’t want to make it bigger than it is.”

Enzo Maresca has assessed Chelsea’s season while winking in the direction of the boardroom. “Compared to the last two years [the season] is not a failure,” he blathered. “How many times in the last two years have Chelsea been in the [Bigger Cup] places? And this season we have been there almost all season.”

Norwich interim Jack Wilshere feels he has what it takes to make an impact as a manager – but insists the final two games of a forgettable Championship season are not all about him. “This is about the players feeling in a place where they can perform,” whooped Wilshere, who is running the London Marathon on Sunday. “My job was to lift the players and focus on the next few games, rather than see this as an audition.”

With six teams vying for the title on the final day, the National League South has announced a trophy will not be standing by at any stadiums. “The board has voted for clubs to arrange the presentation of the trophy at a later date, once the champions are confirmed,” said a league statement.

And hats off if you had this on your bingo card: former France defender Patrice Evra will make his MMA debut in Paris next month. “I’ve performed on the world’s biggest stages, won every major trophy in football, but PFL Europe Paris will be an incredibly special night for me,” he roared.

The kids are alright at Chelsea and Manchester United, while Morgan Gibbs-White has a City audition at Wembley. It’s 10 things to look out for!

Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix gets his chat on with Ed Aarons about a potential France call-up and why he is “the pastor” at Selhurst.

The 100-point runners-up, anger in Jersey and the rise of Real Bedford: here’s Simon Burnton with some intriguing non-league tales.

Cristiano Ronaldo has 933 career goals – but does he have time to reach 1,000 before retirement? The Daily says yes, but John Duerden takes a deeper dive.

And Rafa Benítez failed at Celta but his replacement, Claudio Giráldez, has helped the team find its youthful vigour. Sid Lowe has more.

July 1983: Arsenal manager Terry Neill introduces his new summer signings, John Lukic (left) and Charlie Nicholas in a physical manner that you couldn’t imagine the modern-day Premier League footballer getting on board with.